TRIVIA SECTION
Did you know .....
....... that The Sunderland Lodge No. 4114 was the first lodge in the Province of Durham to have a web site
Did you know .....
....... that The Sunderland Lodge No. 4114 was the first lodge in the Province of Durham to have a web site
....... that the name "Sunderland" means exactly what it says -- "the land cast asunder", presumably by the River Wear.
....... that The Sunderland Lodge has the popular Secretary's Quiz at every meeting, except November.
....... that there are five lodges with palindromic numbers in the Province of Durham - Restoration Lodge No. 111, Borough Lodge No. 424 and The Sunderland Lodge No. 4114.
....... that when it was first invented in 1963 by Douglas C. Engelbart, the computer mouse was originally called a "X-Y position indicator".
....... Sunderland became a city in 1992.
....... that The Sunderland Lodge met at the reconstructed Beamish Temple between 1920 and 1933. The Temple is at the Beamish Open Area Museum which is a very popular tourist venue near Stanley, in County Durham. Well worth a visit!
....... that County Durham is known as "The Land of the Prince Bishops."
....... that there are 180 lodges in the Province of Durham.
....... that there was Masonic lodge in Sunderland named after Benedict Biscop (closed in 2009).
Yes ......... it does look as if he has a computer keyboard in his hand!
Yes ......... it does look as if he has a computer keyboard in his hand!
....... for years, every summer, the City of Sunderland hosted a free International Air Show ...... sadly the local Labour council decided that they would no longer continue the tradition, much to the disappointment of the residents of Sunderland!
....... that the Internet became very popular in 1994, but it has been around since the 1960's, good manners when sending an email is called "netiquette" and BLOCK CAPITALS in an email means that you are shouting.
....... that the Stadium of light (the home of Sunderland A.F.C.) is built on the site of an old colliery.
....... that Sunderland A.F.C. won the Football Association Cup in 1937 and 1973.
....... that Sunderland A.F.C. was founded in 1881 and was based on a club known as The Teachers which had started playing in 1879.
....... that the family of the first President of the United States of America originated from Washington Village, just outside of Sunderland. The family coat-of-arms was three stripes and three stars. Does that sound familiar?
....... that John George Lambton, Provincial Grand Master of the Province of Durham between 1818 and 1840 was Governor of Canada.
....... that the first recorded ship-building on Sunderland's river (the River Wear) was in 1346.
....... that the tongue of "Big Ben", (the bell in the Palace of Westminster, London), was forged at Hopper's Foundry in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland.
....... that Roker Pier - the harbour's northern breakwater is 2,790 feet long and was opened in 1903. The southern breakwater was never completed due to declining trade.
....... that a system of police boxes was pioneered in Sunderland in 1923 by the then Chief Constable Frederick Crawley.
....... that the Empire Theatre in Sunderland was known as a "comic's graveyard", throughout the world of show business. Many famous names appeared there only to be sent packing by the discerning - if not a little partisan - audience.
and it is said to be haunted by Sid James who died on stage during a performance!
....... that the famous clipper "Torrens" was built in Sunderland. She set a record of 64 days for the Australia run. Launched in 1875, the novelist Joseph Conrad served on her for a time as mate.
A former Sunderland public house was called "The Torrens", but has recently been converted into a convenience store. The ship was also the badge of Pennywell School.
Pennywell School opened in 1967. The school closed in the summer of 2008 after very successfully serving the local community for 41 years.
....... that there is a concrete boat in the River Wear near Claxheugh Rock. The wreck, called "Cretehawser" was built in 1919, gutted for possible use as an emergency breakwater in 1935 and deliberately beached in 1942 (more information below).
Cretehawser (above), was built at Southwick by the Wear Concrete Building Company (a subsidiary of Swan Hunter) and was launched on March 15th, 1919. She was a sea-going tug of 262 tons, 162 feet long with a beam of 28 feet and draft of 13 feet and was followed by sister ships Creterope, Cretecable, Creteboom and Cretestem. In service, Cretehawser towed several loaded barges often of coal but the imposition of dock fees on all three craft rather than just the tug made the practice totally uneconomic.
The abandoned vessel has lain beside the Wear since 1942 after her withdrawal from service during the Depression. Initially she and other vessels were gutted, being intended as makeshift breakwaters. The first German air raid on Sunderland changed matters for the Creteships. Creteboom suffered a direct hit and was sent to the bottom of Hendon Dock creating a huge navigation obstacle of shattered concrete. A major salvage operation was mounted to raise the debris from the dock. Sister vessel Cretehawser, now engineless, and a sitting duck for enemy bombers, was towed out of dock up-river and grounded, opposite the old Hylton Colliery, to prevent her suffering the same fate as Creteboom.
The abandoned vessel has lain beside the Wear since 1942 after her withdrawal from service during the Depression. Initially she and other vessels were gutted, being intended as makeshift breakwaters. The first German air raid on Sunderland changed matters for the Creteships. Creteboom suffered a direct hit and was sent to the bottom of Hendon Dock creating a huge navigation obstacle of shattered concrete. A major salvage operation was mounted to raise the debris from the dock. Sister vessel Cretehawser, now engineless, and a sitting duck for enemy bombers, was towed out of dock up-river and grounded, opposite the old Hylton Colliery, to prevent her suffering the same fate as Creteboom.
It was in Sunderland that the first outbreak of cholera in the United Kingdom occurred in October 1831. Two hundred people died.
....... that Sunderland was among the seven most bombed British towns and cities during the Second World War. The German Luffwaffe were responsible for 267 people being killed, 1,000 injured (362 of them seriously) and 90% of the 34,500 dwellings damaged, with 1,013 being totally destroyed.
....... that this is the fourth version of The Sunderland Lodge web site. The first version was on line from June 1997 to August 2000, the second from August 2000 to February 2010 and the third from February 2010 to May 2015. This version is from May 2015 and we were the first lodge in the Province of Durham to have a website. The website is regularly updated by the Lodge Secretary.
"It's grim up North"
Don't you believe it!
Yes, the north-east of England was at one time an area of heavy engineering industry such as ship-building and yes there were many collieries each with their own very ugly slag heap.
Times have changed and the area has changed, very much for the better. There is some very beautiful countryside and golden beaches running right up to the Scottish border.
There is a lot of history in the area - Christian history going back many, many centuries and there are also many castles - a throwback to the days when we had to fight off maurauding Scots and Vikings.
We have proper roads, we don't keep coal in the bath and we have electricity in fact one of the first houses in the world to be illuminated by electricity is in the north-east of England (Cragside near Rothbury).
We don't wear caps and mufflers and we don't race whippets!
We are one of the best kept secrets in the whole of Great Britain!
Don't you believe it!
Yes, the north-east of England was at one time an area of heavy engineering industry such as ship-building and yes there were many collieries each with their own very ugly slag heap.
Times have changed and the area has changed, very much for the better. There is some very beautiful countryside and golden beaches running right up to the Scottish border.
There is a lot of history in the area - Christian history going back many, many centuries and there are also many castles - a throwback to the days when we had to fight off maurauding Scots and Vikings.
We have proper roads, we don't keep coal in the bath and we have electricity in fact one of the first houses in the world to be illuminated by electricity is in the north-east of England (Cragside near Rothbury).
We don't wear caps and mufflers and we don't race whippets!
We are one of the best kept secrets in the whole of Great Britain!